Kathmandu, Nepal –
Rescue services focused on a possible location of a passenger plane with 22 people on board that is feared to have crashed on Sunday with cloudy weather in the mountains of Nepal, officials said.
Tara Air’s plane flew 20 minutes from the tourist city of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Kathmandu, to the mountain town of Jomsom. The Twin Otter turboprop aircraft lost contact with the airport tower near landing in an area of deep river gorges and mountain tops.
An army helicopter and private helicopters were involved in the search, the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
Army troops and rescue crews rushed to the scene of the crash, which is believed to be in the vicinity of Lete, a village in the Mustang district, said Narayan Silwal, a spokesman for the army, on Twitter.
But bad weather and falling night caused the search to be suspended until Monday morning, Silwal said.
“Poor visibility due to bad weather is hampering efforts. The plane has not yet been located,” he said. Rescuers were trying to reach an area where locals allegedly saw a fire, although it is not yet clear what was burning, Silwal added. He said officials could only verify the information once troops arrived on the scene.
NA has stopped all search and rescue efforts for today due to loss of daylight and bad weather. The search will resume tomorrow in the early hours of the morning from both the air and the ground. Our HC search and rescue team is waiting in Jomsom.
– NASspokesperson (@NaSpokesperson) May 29, 2022
Tara Air spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said rescuers had reduced a possible location for the plane.
According to the flight tracking data from flightradar24.com, the 43-year-old plane took off from Pokhara at 09:55 (04:10 GMT) and transmitted its last signal at 10:07 (04: 00). 22 GMT) altitude of 12,825 feet (3,900 meters).
There were six foreigners on board the plane, including four Indians and two Germans, according to a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The plane was carrying 19 passengers and three crew, Bartaula said.
It has been raining in the area for the last few days, but flights have been running normally. The planes on this route fly between mountains before landing in a valley.
It is a popular route among foreign hikers touring the mountain trails and also among Indian and Nepalese pilgrims visiting the revered Muktinath temple.
Nepal has an irregular air safety history.
In 2016, a Tara Air Twin Otter flying the same route crashed after takeoff, killing all 23 people on board. In 2012, an Agni Air plane that also flew from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed and killed 15 people. Six people survived. In 2014, a Nepal Airlines plane flying from Pokhara to Jumla crashed and killed all 18 on board.
In 2018, a US-Bangla passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed landing in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.
The Twin Otter, a rugged aircraft originally built by Canadian aircraft maker De Havilland, has been in service in Nepal for about 50 years, during which it has been involved in about 21 accidents, according to aviationnepal.com.
The aircraft, with the wing mounted at the top and the fixed landing gear, is appreciated for its durability and its ability to take off and land on short runways.
Production of the aircraft originally ended in the 1980s. Another Canadian company, Viking Air, re-produced the model in 2010.